A business that serviced typewriters and later word processors across big brand names throughout the UK. Sahara was formed in 1984 and was to be led by the Batley brothers, Kevin as Managing Director and Nigel as Finance Director.
Both brothers had a passion for technology and brought many firsts to market with sliding rail system boards, the sand coloured board and the infamous orange projectors for classrooms.
With touch technology dominating the early 2000’s, the brothers embarked on bringing to market what would be the world’s first interactive display for education. Launched at Bett 2009, Clevertouch was unveiled in the UK. Year one, 100 screens sold. Year two, 400 screens sold. Year three, 1000 screens. In 2023, nearly 100,000 were sold and installed into classrooms and meeting rooms around the world.
Clevertouch went on to be a leader for innovation, bringing to market many new features with CTO Shaun Marklew charging ahead and helping to bring about change that will dominate the market. Shaun comments ‘We always look ahead and identified key features and were first with mobile device management, LYNX software, over-the-air updates, capitlise on BYOD with content sharing using Clevershare and the ability to push out digital signage content to any of our Clevertouch products using CleverLive.’
In 2017, Sedao digital signage became part of the Sahara business bringing added benefits, along with what is now 20 years of experience. David Oades, former Owner of Sedao and now Director of Clevertouch Software Development comments: ‘When we started, browsers were in their infancy, Chrome didn’t even exist, and our software to combine posters, text and movies was groundbreaking. 20 years on, the challenges are less about what messaging can be shown on a screen and more about unifying communications. Making sure messages can be shown across any organisation. A clear, cost effective, channel for those posters, text and movies to be seen’.
Also in 2017, Adam Kingshott joined the business and goes on to become Group Marketing Director. He promised to make the business a multi-award-winning business and increase our footprint to be seen across the world with global strategy. ‘Our awards cabinet is bulging! It’s an incredible journey bringing a family business to an international audience. All credit to our teams for bringing together innovative products and support.’
Since then, business for the Clevertouch brand continues to flourish with John Ginty, who joined the business in 2010, and is now EMEA Sales Director. ‘We continue to drive the market forward with our teams and amazing partners set up across the globe that help deliver the Clevertouch ethos and products.’
In 2020, the Sahara and Clevertouch become part of the Boxlight Group with access to a wider range of products and training services.
The business proudly has its roots in Kent, where we remain today. A family company taking on established brands and winning. We’re now the fifth largest brand globally for interactive screens and have a portfolio of digital signage and collaboration products. We moved to new premises in February 2024. Raise your glass, to entrepreneurship and many more years of success. The AV industry is flourishing today and we’re proud to have helped change it for the better.
